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In 1961, Martin Joos, a linguist at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote "The Five Clocks",

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describing five styles or registers of English
use. Now, this system hasn't changed since

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Joos just stated it, so while it's a good
introduction for the lay reader, don't take

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it as gospel.

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Joos proposed five registers for English:
Frozen, Formal, Consultative, Casual and Intimate.

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Frozen's easy. That's quotes that are set
in stone. For example, from the Bible: "thou

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shalt not kill". That's frozen. Formal is
what I'm doing now, although I'm deliberately

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slipping in occasional casual words and breaks
in an effort to build a rapport with you,

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the viewer. That's probably not working, but
hey, I tried. Consultative is what might happen

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in a formal business meeting, or when there's
information to transfer: no-one assumes prior

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knowledge. Casual is friends down the pub:
there are interruptions, in-jokes, and it's

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OK if you stumble a lot. And finally, there's
Intimate: the private language, including

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non-verbal cues, that family members and very
close friends build up.

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Everyone slips between each of these registers
hundreds of times a day, without thinking

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about it. We instinctively know which register
to use... and on the few times we get it wrong,

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it's a recipe for social embarrassment. But
what's interesting is that it's not just about

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how we talk. It's not just about using "I'm
going to" instead of "Imma": it's about all

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the words we use.

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The most obvious example in English of how
registers change language is in the names

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for meat. In 1066, the Normans invaded England,
and they generally spoke Norman or Picard.

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Not that Picard. These were the languages
of what is now western France. I'm simplifying

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a lot here, but over the next couple centuries,
they got merged with Anglo-Saxon to make Anglo-Norman...

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which was spoken amongst the gentry and higher
social classes, darling. So the people who

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were eating meat more often referred to the
food on their plate by the Anglo-Norman boef

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-- beef -- while those raising the animals
referred to them by their Anglo-Saxon name:

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cow.

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You'll see that all over. The complicated
words, the fancy words, the words associated

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with prestige and more formal registers -- they're
more likely to be of Norman origin, and to

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sound French. A smell is Anglo-Saxon; an odour
is French. If you order a drink, you're in

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Anglo-Saxon. Order a beverage, you're in French.
And meanwhile, the Latin and Greek words -- the

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words of scholars -- generally appear in more
technical registers.

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And then, you have swearing. Brilliant, Anglo-Saxon
swearing. Some Anglo-Saxon words for body

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functions became considered rude, when we
had the more refined French or Latin words

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that could describe the same thing less coarsely.

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So, the posh words are French. The rough words
are Anglo-Saxon. And we switch between them

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and so many other things without even thinking
about it. The seeds of linguistic class warfare

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were sown almost a millennium ago.

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